Starting tomorrow, Honolulu police will begin enforcing a revised city law that outlaws camping at most parks islandwide, including Kapi'olani Park in Waikiki, where dozens of tent dwellers have been congregating on the 200-acre green at the threshold of Hawai'i's world-famous tourist destination.

The law has been on the books for a week, but a Honolulu Police Department spokesman said authorities have held back since last Friday as a "grace period."

That was intended to allow outreach organizations to encourage park dwellers to go to emergency shelters, and to give the city's Parks and Recreation Department time to acquaint campers and the public with the "illegal camping" ordinance.

"Right now, as a general policy, we're going to hold off, to make sure the word got out," said police Maj. Alan Bluemke.

But that grace period ends today, he said.

Bluemke said police will target neither homeless campers in particular nor any specific park, although he acknowledged that Kapi'olani is a priority because of its high visibility within the state's No. 1 tourist mecca.

The revised city ordinance is "not a homeless law," he said. "It's a camping law that applies to anybody that might be in violation."

The law prohibits camping between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., except by permit at one of 15 designated parks. Since Kapi'olani is not one of the designated parks, anyone camping there overnight would be violating the law.

HELP AVAILABLE

Police and city officials do not consider the illegal camping ordinance a "new law." Rather, they describe it as a clarified version of the city's previous illegal camping law that was stuck down as too vague by the Hawai'i Supreme Court on Nov. 16. Following that decision, police officers stopped issuing camping citations during the months it took to rewrite and enact the statute.

Essentially, the revised law defines "camping" as the use of a public park as "a temporary or permanent dwelling place or sleeping place" during the specified hours. It also spells out the meanings of "dwelling place," "human habitation," "public park" and "sleeping place."

Debbie Morikawa, director of the city Department of Community Services, said her department has met with O'ahu outreach providers to advise them of the law and let them know that police would soon be enforcing it.

"We wanted to make sure that they had the ability to go out and inform people, as well as to address any of their concerns that might come up as a result of the new definition," she said.

Darlene Hein, program director of the Waikiki Care-a-Van, which offers medical supplies, food and other services to the homeless, said that's just what her organization has been doing.

"We're going out to the parks and letting people know," Hein said. "We're offering to assist them if they want to go into a shelter. And we're just telling them about what options they have."

Hein said homeless people at Kapi'olani Park consist mostly of singles and couples, and that there is space for a majority of those people at two of the area's emergency shelters, Next Step in Kaka'ako and the Institute for Human Services. She added that her workers would work with anyone who couldn't be immediately placed until something becomes available.

Connie Mitchell, executive director of the two IHS shelters in Iwilei, said some homeless people prefer to remain outside the shelter system.

"We are really interested in working with people who are genuinely homeless and want services," Mitchell said. "We try to find a balance between offering compassion with encouraging people to take some self-responsibility as well."

TAKING IT SLOW

Meanwhile, tourism officials, politicians, business owners and park users have complained about the growing homeless occupation at Kapi'olani Park, describing it as detrimental to the economy and potentially dangerous. They have expressed concerns that the situation could hurt tourism at a time when visitor numbers are already down.

Even after today, authorities are expected to execute camping citations cautiously, particularly in the beginning stages at heavily occupied parks such as Kapi'olani. City parks and recreation director Lester Chang has said officials need to be sensitive to the situations of those who will have to move.